Understanding FICO® Scoring

[shorttough]

hi,

i have 1 credit card at 90% and 2 others at 80%. I recently applied for 2 credit cards. and have a limit of 8000 and 4000.

should i distribute the balances evenly so that all 5 CC have lower than 50 or at 50% and take a hit with  "Too many Account With Balances".

or just leave them as they are.

Thanks

[Shogun]

The one at 90% is considered maxed out.  You should be careful with that, sometime they will balance chase you down and drop the CL.

[beb86]

If your new cards have lower interest and 0% BT I would try to BT to your new card(s) and pay down asap...

[shorttough]

i have till February to improve my score as much as i can, so i'm really looking for quick improvement.

Current Score as of now is 708 Equifax

[RobertEG]

FairIsaac has not, to my knowlege, disclosed the respective weightings given to individ card utils and % with balance.

From anecdotal postings, it appears that % with balance is lower, so I would put more focus on maintaining individ card utils lower.

Aside from FICO scoring implications, extended higher % utils on cards are often a trigger for potential credit limit reductions by creditors.

Thus, maintaining high individ card utils might lead to future CL decreases, resulting in reduction of card balances not providing a reduction in % util on the card.